The Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR) in Rivers State has expressed regret that political leaders at all levels of government in the country have disconnected themselves from Nigerians, thereby making the citizenry unable to relate to their every action.
?In a statement made available to LEADERSHIP SUNDAY in Port Harcourt, the NIPR said that leaders in the three tiers of government had derailed from the popular “I had no shoes,” line of President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan that made Nigerians vote for him during the 2011 general elections.
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?“We observe that many Nigerians are now disenchanted with the actions of government at all levels, as they have disconnected them from the “I had no shoes” message of President Jonathan, which was what made them vote for him during the election,” it said.
?The statement, signed by chairman, Karibi George, and public relations officer (PRO) Clarice Azuatalam, of the body, lamented that the nation’s economy suffered terribly as a result of the April general election, ?and added that the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) spent a whooping N107 billion for the election.
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?The body stated that the money spent by the PDP during the April 2011 election would have been enough to build two viable refineries in the country to engage most of the teeming unemployed youths.
?The statement charged information managers of President Jonathan, the state governors and chairmen of local government councils in the country to prioritise the action of these leaders to make them actualise the materialneeds of Nigerians.?
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?According to the NIPR, the advice became necessary in view of the ‘Arab Spring’, which caught many Arab countries and their leaders unawares and has continued to spread uncontrollably.
The NIPR decried the decision of the federal government to remove subsidy from petroleum products, a deed which, in their opinion, further aggravated the hardship faced by Nigerians, and stressed that the action of the federal government was coming at a time when most of the state governments had insisted that they ?cannot pay the N18,000.00 new minimum wage.
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